After months of wallet damaging preparation on Gertie, the '10 Countries' rally was finally here. Monday morning was spent changing my hard earned cash up into Euro's and buying a few last minute provisions to fend off hunger on the long days ahead.
My Co-driver for the event Dave Harvey arrived around 3 ish and we then spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to transfer the directions from the route book onto the latest Collins map of Europe.
After much head scratching and confusion we decided this had been a bad idea and went out for our last curry and beer on English soil for a few days.
Tuesday: We finished packing the car and set out for the port. The route to Dover was only delayed by a good old fashioned 'English Breakfast' stop on the A127. Our crossing was shared with plenty of other Triumphs, not to mention Team Torpedo from America who were running five cars.
A calm crossing was followed by a quiet run down to Lomme where we were staying the night. The event started proper on the Wednesday morning. A lovely pizza was followed by 'just the one' glass of beer in a local pub. The glasses given could hold a litre of beer, (1.7 pints) so just having one was a good call.
Wednesday: Despite not being hungover we still managed to arrive at the start late and most of the cars had already set off. I don't think anybody got too far though due to a horrendous traffic jam just outside Lille which caused most of us to lose over an hour.
We eventually headed down some lovely national driving roads taking in Belgium and Luxembourg before crossing back into France and heading down towards Metz and Nancy. We then crossed the French Natural park and finished for the night in Mulhouse. Dinner was a nice rump steak and enjoyed with some excellent company in the form of Kris Schouppe and Yvan Roggeman.
Thursday: Morning dawned early but bright and we decided to skip breakfast to get on the road early and beat the traffic. This turned out to be quite successful and around lunchtime we were enjoying a coffee and an ice cream at the top of the San Bernadino Pass in Switzerland.
After lunch we tackled many other passes before finishing off on the Umbrail and Stelvio. (We actually ended up doing Stelvio twice, and the Gavia pass as well, but that's another story for the club magazine.)
After a longer than expected day we reached our hotel in Italy at 10pm. Luckily the local Pizza restaurant was still open and we managed to fit a meal and a beer in before returning back to the hotel for the night.
Friday: After our previous long day, we didn't fancy another extended one so we planned a route of our own. Our day took us back into Switzerland and up onto the beautiful Bernina pass. This is a fantastic road and has breath taking views as well. A perfect drive for any Triumph. It doesn't appear to be that well known yet either as it wasn't swamped with Motorbikes, cyclists, or tourists.
After a leisurely coffee at the top of the pass we carried on for a while before tackling another brilliant pass named the Albula. Once again, with not many motorbikes or cyclists around it was a lovely drive and completed without hassle or incident.
Our lunchtime stop included a minor repair to a split breather pipe on the fuel tank which had been annoying us with a petrol smell whenever we filled up with petrol, but disappeared below three quarters of a tank. With the rest of the car checked over we continued our journey through Lichtenstein and Austria before meeting up with some of our other crew in Singen in Germany.
Saturday: It always seems to rain when I visit Germany and today was no exception. We left the hotel after a good breakfast and settled in for the long drive to Rolduc. We did manage to find another good driving road over near Baden Baden and it must have been popular as we met a Mini Club and a Porsche club driving it as well. (Although going the opposite way to us)
The afternoon was a long motorway drive and we met up with Colin Wake and crew who were having issues with the Mk1 Pi they were running. We followed them to Rolduc in case of any further issues they might have had, but luckily things were fine.
We eventually headed down some lovely national driving roads taking in Belgium and Luxembourg before crossing back into France and heading down towards Metz and Nancy. We then crossed the French Natural park and finished for the night in Mulhouse. Dinner was a nice rump steak and enjoyed with some excellent company in the form of Kris Schouppe and Yvan Roggeman.
Thursday: Morning dawned early but bright and we decided to skip breakfast to get on the road early and beat the traffic. This turned out to be quite successful and around lunchtime we were enjoying a coffee and an ice cream at the top of the San Bernadino Pass in Switzerland.
After a longer than expected day we reached our hotel in Italy at 10pm. Luckily the local Pizza restaurant was still open and we managed to fit a meal and a beer in before returning back to the hotel for the night.
Friday: After our previous long day, we didn't fancy another extended one so we planned a route of our own. Our day took us back into Switzerland and up onto the beautiful Bernina pass. This is a fantastic road and has breath taking views as well. A perfect drive for any Triumph. It doesn't appear to be that well known yet either as it wasn't swamped with Motorbikes, cyclists, or tourists.
Our lunchtime stop included a minor repair to a split breather pipe on the fuel tank which had been annoying us with a petrol smell whenever we filled up with petrol, but disappeared below three quarters of a tank. With the rest of the car checked over we continued our journey through Lichtenstein and Austria before meeting up with some of our other crew in Singen in Germany.
The afternoon was a long motorway drive and we met up with Colin Wake and crew who were having issues with the Mk1 Pi they were running. We followed them to Rolduc in case of any further issues they might have had, but luckily things were fine.
Rolduc in Holland appeared all too quickly and another brilliant 10CR was over. The celebrating of a successful run began and a good night was had by all. Serious breakdowns had been few and far between and as a far as I'm aware only two cars failed to complete the trip.
Sunday: Trying to beat that 'back to work and reality' feeling is hard when all you are doing is running home, but it was a good drive back to the port. We did leave Rolduc a little bit late and only just made the boat in time to be honest.
It had been a fantastic trip though and it's always great to see old faces and meet new friends. I'm looking forward to the next one already, but also quite fancy a trip to Ireland as I've never been there, so I might organise a little run there as a filler before the next 10CR.
Sunday: Trying to beat that 'back to work and reality' feeling is hard when all you are doing is running home, but it was a good drive back to the port. We did leave Rolduc a little bit late and only just made the boat in time to be honest.
It had been a fantastic trip though and it's always great to see old faces and meet new friends. I'm looking forward to the next one already, but also quite fancy a trip to Ireland as I've never been there, so I might organise a little run there as a filler before the next 10CR.
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